Check out this 80 Talking Teddy Ruxpin Doll Exhibit, it grabs emotional sayings from the net and says them using a synthesized voice. One of the Teddy Ruxpin dolls speaks the phrase and a spot light illuminates the doll talking. Inside each doll is a custom made board which animates the eyes, mouth and lips.

The Orvillecopter is a helicopter built from a dead cat. Bart Jansen created the copter after his cat was killed when it was struck by a car.

Via: CBC

“It’s a tribute to the cat Orville, that was named after the famous aviator Orville Wright. After the cat was killed by a car, and followed by a period of mourning, visual artist Bart Jansen transformed him into the Orvillecopter: Now he is finally flying with the birds. The greatest goal a cat could ever reach!”

This US Military Experimental Flying Platform from 1955 is like a flying Segway. I wonder how long it will be before we have a modern day version of this. With technology that is becoming common place because of devices like the AR Drone I think the time is close since the stabilization technology would be quite trivial these days.

If you are getting a bit tired of driving your car manually this hack might be for you. The guys from Waterloo Labs built this car that can be driven around using an iPhone. They are using a CompactRIO controller as the brains of the system which might be considered overkill and does come with a hefty price tag of almost two grand!

Thanks to Jody for sending this one in.

 ”We built our control systems using a few motors, potentiometers, a Compact RIO embedded controller, and LabVIEW. We then set up wi-fi communication so we can drive the car from an iPhone as well as from a modified Power Wheels truck.”

 Thanks to Dieter Sturm for sending in his latest jet powered creation. He is putting the final touches on this Tiny Jet Powered Monster Truck. They are looking for sponsors, so if you are looking to have your name on the side of something cool I suggest you give Dieter a call right away! For his next build I vote to see a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 stuffed onto the back of a full sized truck.

To see this thing in action be sure to watch the video after the jump.

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The video above demonstrates what Vijay Kumar and his team are building. We have seen some toy quadcopters that have some impressive capabilities but I can’t wait till a tiny and smart quadcopter as agile as these are available. If you don’t have the time to watch the entire video make sure you see the flight demonstrations at 10:05.

Thanks for sending this in Matt.

 ”In his lab at Penn, Vijay Kumar and his team build flying quadrotors, small, agile robots that swarm, sense each other, and form ad hoc teams — for construction, surveying disasters and far more.”

Discovery Channel is probably my favorite TV channel, they have an abundance of shows that intrigue curious minds. It looks like there will be another great show to add to their line up. Top Engineer sounds like it will be a must see when it’s release. The  good news is that they are casting for it right now and Lisa from Pilgrim Studios though there would probably be some good candidates in our audience. If you would like to be on the show go here to read more details about it.

You can see the PDF Flyer for the casting here. 

“The Discovery Channel is looking for America’s most creative and daring techies, machinists, inventors and engineers to design, build, and BLAST their way to a Grand Prize on their new competition TV show TOP ENGINEER.

A handful of lucky men and women will be chosen to take on exciting challenges from various engineering fields at the state-of-the-art WET design facilities (www.wetdesign.com) in California.

No, you don’t need to have an engineering degree to compete on this show, but you MUST be able to design, build, test and integrate an idea into a final product that WORKS. These will be fast-paced, hands-on, VISCERAL challenges! If your experience is strictly behind the keyboard, then this show is NOT for you.

We are looking for visual effects experts, accomplished home shop machinists, contractors and engineers with backgrounds in electrical, civil, structural or mechanical engineering.

If you have an outgoing personality and are ready to get your hands dirty for the chance to win a GRAND PRIZE and the title of TOP ENGINEER, then we want to hear from you.”